Controversies and Disputes in Disability and Rehabilitation

Although the field of disability services and societal understanding of disability issues have advanced in recent decades there remain controversial subjects and unresolved disputes. These cover a wide spectrum from legislation impacting the entire disability community such as the ADA, to culture clashes within a minority group such as the deaf community. Experts analyze and discuss nine of these controversies of particular interest to professional social workers. They are ones about which there are obvious disagreements and no readily available solutions . All sides of the issues are examined to enable readers to draw their own conclusions. The overall intent is to draw attention to each controversy and to motivate professional social workers to engage in personal as well as public dialogue about them.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Social Work in Disability and Rehabilitation.

Roland Meinert, Ph.D., now retired, was Professor and Director of Schools of Social Work at Michigan State University and the University of Missouri. His book and journal publications cover a wide range of topics including mental health, administration, policy, education and others. He was formerly co-editor of the Journal of Social Development Issues.

Francis K. O. Yuen, DSW, is Professor at the Division of Social Work at California State University, Sacramento. He has published in the areas of family health social work practice, program evaluation, disability and services to refugees and immigrants. He is the editor of the Journal of Social Work in Disability& Rehabilitation.